Pooling Our Strengths

The positive aspects of globalization — the broad circulation of ideas and technology, people and financial resources, goods and services - enable the best ideas and solutions to address problems the world over. Worldwide, the United States and Germany support the largest and second largest workforces, respectively, through their foreign affiliates: U.S. affiliates employ 9 million workers while German affiliates employ 4.6 million worldwide.

Government and nonprofit entities have long played the leading role in fostering economic development, but the traditional “donor-to-recipient” model of foreign aid is being supplemented by public-private partnerships. With total spending of $23.5 billion in 2006, the United States was the world's largest provider of official development assistance (ODA). Germany, along with the United Kingdom, Japan, and France each spent between $10.5 to $12.5 billion dollars. U.S. private financial flows - investment, philanthropy, and remittances — are, however, more than four times higher than ODA, and along with substantial imports, accelerate dramatic, positive changes in the developing world, including poverty reduction, job creation, increases in productivity and a skilled labor force, health and nutrition gains — and the rise of a civil society that underpins democratization, human rights, and sustainable development.